News

Welcome back to the Weekend Warrior, your weekly look at the new movies hitting theaters this weekend, as well as other cool events and things to check out.

Two Very Different Movies Look to Divide Up the Weekend Box Office Business

With Disney’s Beauty and the Beast continuing to dominate at the box office with $90 million this past weekend, and Saban’s Power Rangers (Lionsgate) also doing exceedingly well with $40 million in second place, you wouldn’t think anyone would try to release a movie that might get overshadowed by those two blockbusters.

That said, what’s interesting about this weekend is the fact there are two very different movies that are competing very heavily for second place with DreamWorks Animation’s latest animated family film, The Boss Baby (20th Century Fox), taking on the live action English remake of Ghost In The Shell (Paramount), starring Scarlett Johansson. In most cases,

Rebecca Ferguson, Charles Dance and Sam Reid star in the completed romance-thriller about a female spy who steals secrets from an idealistic politician but then falls in love with him with tragic consequences.

Harris, best known for Prometheus and last year’s really rather brilliant Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation, was forced to pull out of the adaptation citing personal reasons just as filming of the pilot episode got underway. Now that the network has drafted in a replacement, it is Schreiber that will take point as the Mad Sweeney, a down-on-his-luck leprechaun pondering exactly where his life strayed from the beaten path.

The main draw of Despite The Falling Snow is a dual performance by Rebecca Ferguson, who shot this in between her Emmy-nominated work on The White Queen and her memorable breakthrough role in last year's Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation. Adapted by writer-director Sharim Sharif from her own novel, this romantic thriller casts Ferguson as two women separated by time but connected by blood and a sequence of events that occurred in Moscow at the height of the Cold War.

In 1992, an American artist called Lauren (Ferguson) is curious as to why her weary uncle Sacha (Charles Dance) is so cagey about their family's history and the circumstances of his defection from Russia thirty years prior. In particular, she's beguiled by her aunt Katya (also Ferguson), of whom she is the spitting image.

The TV adaptation of Neil Gaiman's American Gods may have started out as the story of Shadow Moon and his dealings with Mr. Wednesday, but over the course of 8 episodes the relationship between Pablo Schreiber's leprechaun and the dead girl who absorbed his lucky coin (Emily Browning) became the most engaging storyline of them all.

See related Willy Wonka: new movie will not adapt any of the books, origin beats confirmed

It turns out that this was no accident. Mad Sweeney and Laura Moon were always supposed to bring light to the darkness, as Schreiber recently confirmed to io9.

"One of the key elements of the pitch they gave me was that his journey was going to be sort of like 'Bonnie and Clyde

Written and directed by Shamim Sarif – working from her own 2004 novel, no less – the spy thriller is rooted in the bitter-cold setting of Moscow which, during the late ’50s, was still in the thick of the Cold War. Ferguson plays Lauren, an American agent tasked with going undercover as Katya Grinkova to retrieve Russian military plans deemed crucial by her home country.

But those plans fall onto the back-burner once Ferguson’s lead meets Soviet big wig Alexander Ivanov (Sam Reid), a charming and idealistic politician with whom she strikes up a passionate relationship.

Hot off "Mission: Impossible — Rogue Nation," breakout star Rebecca Ferguson has three movies on the way this year, including the Meryl Streep vehicle "Florence Foster Jenkins" and the hotly buzzed thriller "The Girl On The Train." But first is "Despite The Falling Snow," a Cold War drama that will find Ferguson in dual roles. Read More: Rebecca Ferguson Gets Back Into Action For 'Mission: Impossible 6' Directed by Shamim Sharif, and based on her own novel, the film co-stars Sam Reid and Charles Dance. The story kicks off when a Russian agent (Ferguson) seduces a U.S. politician in order to steal his secrets, only wind up falling for him. Thirty years later, the politician's niece, also played by Ferguson, tries to discover what happened to the Russian spy. Here's the book synopsis: After an early career amongst the political elite of Cold War Moscow, Alexander Ivanov has lived in

While Paramount has yet to confirm a start date, it looks like Star Trek 3 has officially begun production! Stars Zachary Quinto, who plays Spock, and Zoe Saldana, who plays Uhuru, both share Instagram photos and video as they prepare to hit the set. We even get to see Zoe Saldana doing an impression from the classic 80s movie, Coming to America.

Star Trek 3 has not officially announced the title Star Trek Beyond, but writer and star Simon Pegg has openly called the movie that in past interviews. Initial shooting is taking place in Stawamus Chief Provincial Park, in Canada. TrekCore have even provided a map of where filming is taking place. Though, it should be noted, no plot details have been revealed at this time.

Star Trek 3 is set to open next year, hitting in the summer with a July 8, 2016 release date. Things are up and running smoothly today,

He is survived by three children, five grandchildren, and the publisher Pat Woolley, who loved him for 16 years.

Close friends, industry colleagues and family are invited to the wake to mourn and praise him, on Saturday at 2pm in Ultimo, Sydney. Email your interest to books@fastbooks.com.au before Friday 6pm for further details.

Grateful thanks to everyone at Wolper Jewish Hospital, Woollahra, who cared for him so tenderly the last 6 weeks of his life,

The plot is based on the true story of Joy Mangano, a single mother from Long Island who made millions of dollars after selling her Miracle Mop invention. The release date indicates the director is clearly taking another shot at an Oscar, since his last movie, American Hustle, which also starred Jennifer Lawrence, was given a similar release date.

Fox is moving ahead with “Joy,” setting a Christmas 2015 release date for what’s being developed as a potential Jennifer Lawrence vehicle about the inventor of the Miracle Mop.

Fox had no further comment.

David O. Russell indicated earlier this year that he was looking to cast Lawrence as inventor-entrepreneur Joy Mangano. Lawrence said last month on “Live With Kelly and Michael” that she was interested in the project.

Eternally popular rogue sailor Sinbad returns yet again with “Sinbad and the Minotaur”, a mythological mash up that sees him searching for treasure and pitted against the fearsome bull beast. Mixing Greek myth and Arabic folk tales with a comic touch, the film was directed by Karl Zwicky (“Farscape”) and stars Manu Bennett (“Spartacus: Blood and Sand”, “30 Days of Night”) in the lead, with Steven Grives (“Mission: Impossible”) as his evil foe. The film is now available on region 2 DVD via Chelsea Films, with no extra features to speak of other than a basic trailer. The film kicks off with Sinbad (Bennett) sneaking into the camp of sinister sorcerer Al-Jibar (Grives), hoping to steal a map which will reveal the location of the head of the legendary golden Colossus of Rhodes. Sinbad being Sinbad, at the same time he also manages to snatch a kidnapped princess called Tara (Holly Brisley

Last night’s episode of V practically felt like a mini-reboot of the whole series. No longer was our beloved rebel gang stuck plotting in the basement. Instead, Erica and Hobbes took an extended espionage vacation, first to Bangkok (where they met with other Fifth Column leaders) and then to Hong Kong (where they pulled an elaborate operation to interrogate a mysterious baby doctor.) Hobbes stole the show here, whether he was showing off his language skills by tossing out some Chinese or initiating some white-hot chemistry with Erica mid-safecrack.

Kim Manners, producer and director of The X-Files as well as a short stint as director on Supernatural, has passed away at the age of 59. He was well-known for his science fiction interests which included Star Trek: The Next Generation. Beyond that, he was also involved in several other hit television shows, making his directorial debut in 1978 with an episode of Charlie's Angels. Other notable credits include 21 Jump Street, Baywatch, and Mission: Impossible. Kim Manners grew up in the world of Hollywood all of his life. During his childhood, he worked closely with his father. His brother, Kelly Manners, was also a producer and director for Buffy The Vampire Slayer and Angel. Manners passed away on Sunday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles after a long battle with lung cancer. I'm sure his

Longtime The X-Files director/producer Kim Manners has lost his battle with lung cancer. He was 59. Manners passed away on Sunday at the Cedars-Sinai hospital in Los Angeles following a long struggle with the deadly disease.

He was best known for his work on sci-fi series The X-Files, for which he won four Emmy Award nominations, and his stint on U.S. TV series Supernatural.

X-Files writer Frank Spotnitz has paid tribute to his late colleague, writing on his official web blog: "Kim had a blazing intensity that inspired everyone - writers, producers, actors and crew. As long as he'd been a director, he never lost his passion for his work. Every time he got a script, he gave it his all. He was driven to execute what he saw in his mind's eye in the most powerful and beautiful way he could. Kim was an incredible force of life. It is hard for me to believe or accept that he is gone."

Supernatural creator and executive producer Eric Kripke adds: "Everyone at Supernatural is walking around in a daze, shocked and absolutely devastated. Kim was a brilliant director; more than that, he was a mentor and friend. He was one of the patriarchs of the family, and we miss him desperately. He gave so much to Supernatural, and everything we do on the show, now and forever, is in memory of him."

In the final part of my 2009 American Film Market report and review roundup, I tackle another 11 movies that I caught during my annual Santa Monica moviegoing orgy. For an overview of the trip, see here; the first batch of reviews can be found here. And for more information on the Afm, held each November in Los Angeles, go here.

IMDb.com, Inc. takes no responsibility for the content or accuracy of the above news articles, Tweets, or blog posts. This content is published for the entertainment of our users only. The news articles, Tweets, and blog posts do not represent IMDb's opinions nor can we guarantee that the reporting therein is completely factual. Please visit the source responsible for the item in question to report any concerns you may have regarding content or accuracy.